Posts by David Benjamin
The other me
by David Benjamin “I just like the idea of trying to write for all those versions of me out there, wherever they are.” —Sherman Alexie “The good writer seems to be writing about himself (but never is) but has his eye always on that thread of the Universe which runs through himself, and all……
Read MoreThe worst of the worst in the whole wide world
by David Benjamin “We shall fight against them, throw them in prisons and destroy them.” —Vladimir Putin “When I look at myself in the first grade and I look at myself now, I’m basically the same.” ― Donald Trump MADISON, Wis.—For a while, I’ve been thinking about who deserves a Top Ten spot…
Read MoreThe Liz quiz: Angela or Martha
by David Benjamin “As if you were on fire from within/ The moon lives in the lining of your skin.” —Pablo Neruda PARIS—For most of us, there are few greater shocks in life than to be seen as attractive. It’s against human nature to look in the mirror and perceive beauty unalloyed and…
Read MoreThe Frankencookies and artisanal Whoppers of Paris
by David Benjamin “How can anyone govern a nation that has two hundred and forty-six different kinds of cheese?” —Charles de Gaulle PARIS—The latest trend in French comestibles, started by a baker with too much time on his hands, is the “crookie,” an otherwise traditional croissant grafted with chocolate-chip cookie dough and then…
Read MoreThe inwardness of the dead-serious teenager
Every spring, the Robert M. Schuster Short Prose Awards at La Follette High School in Madison afford me the opportunity to read young writers’ work and to examine how these kids’ see and depict their world, compared to how, why and what I wrote when I was their age. PARIS— I was a teenage……
Read MoreStir-crazy in Dairyland
by David Benjamin “Conspiracy is a term which gets slighted. Conspiracy theories have been right about a lot of things.” —Aaron Rodgers PARIS—Maybe Wisconsin makes you stir-crazy. I mean, if you’re not from Wisconsin in the first place, and you’re not used to all the men in Wisconsin mumbling, so you have to…
Read More“Down-the-block” tough
by David Benjamin “Don’t let him bluff you, Mr. Louie! Be firm. Stop him!” —Sherman MADISON, Wis.—“Fight like hell!” quoth the demagogue, twenty feet above his congregation, wreathed in cashmere, framed among flags, shielded by bulletproof glass, flanked by bodyguards. “Charge!” he roared, dispatching his masses as he slid into his limousine and…
Read MoreThe Ed McBain Factor
by David Benjamin MADISON, Wis.— Since I was never admitted—nor did I seek admission—to a prestigious university creative-writing program, I don’t know if the students in these curricula are taught much about digging. I learned to dig, rather, as a newspaper reporter and editor. None of my bosses in journalism gave me digging instructions,……
Read MoreSins of the father
by David Benjamin “The stories of young men searching for their fathers are the stories of young men who through their adventures father themselves by doing for themselves what they hoped a father would do for them.” —William S. Wilson “Someone once said that every man is trying to live up to his father’s expectations…
Read MoreA pregnant pause in the word wars
by David Benjamin “‘You’re not allowed to call them dinosaurs any more,’ said Yo-less. ‘It’s speciesist. You have to call them pre-petroleum persons.’” —Terry Pratchett MADISON, Wis.—Ever since I heard, in grade school, the passage in Matthew 25—“Truly, I say to you, as you did to one of the least of my brethren,…
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